Our Verdict

Released in 2016, the Salomon Speedcross 4 is the long-awaited update to the bestselling Speedcross 3, one of the most popular trail running shoes in the world. The model once again remains unchanged for 2018, except for some color and patterning changes to the upper. No shoe features such incredible traction on virtually every surface as the Speedcross 4, and the new update has changed the famously aggressive lug pattern for the better. Except for the modified outsole and a lower cut design around the heel and ankle, this shoe remains mostly the same as it has been for many years. Designed for demanding mountain running, it can handle rough terrain better than just about any other shoe in this review. However, it's not flawless. While its sensitive and nimble feel has endeared it to countless runners, it is also highly unstable, quite narrow, and doesn't handle water very well. As a mixture of really great attributes combined with some quite poor ones, it once again falls right in the middle of our comparative rankings.

Compare to Similar Products

Our Analysis and Test Results

The Speedcross 4 is a problematic shoe to compare to other trail runners. It seems designed more for mountain running, like is popular in Europe, than it is for trail running, like we tend to gravitate towards in the U.S. But ask any runner who has spent time in these shoes whether they like them, and you are paradoxically going to hear one of two very different answers: people either love them, or don't want to wear them. With its incredible traction, this shoe easily grips well on dirt, snow, mud (although it suffers a bit when wet). Its massive lugs bite into the steep dirt, steep grass, and in general, perform very well when the going is steep.

Without a rock plate, it features a very sensitive forefoot, but the stack height under the heel is enormous, making it unstable and laterally tippy. The quick lace system with lace garage in the tongue is the quickest and easiest lacing system in our review, but the laces prove to be easy to break and not easy to fix. While the shoe is seemingly designed for wet conditions, it also doesn't drain well and getting it wet causes the insole liner to move around and scrunch up. Few would argue that these shoes are comfortable, but it is up to the individual to decide whether they match their running desires.

Performance Comparison

The Speedcross 4 are a very popular trail running shoe known for their incredible traction and technical precision.

Foot Protection

The Speedcross 4 does not have a forefoot rock plate, like some of the shoes in this test, and relies instead on the EVA cushioning to absorb blows to the foot. In the forefoot, the amount of cushioning is minimal, giving it great sensitivity for running uphill, but not a ton of protection. Paradoxically, the heel has a ton of cushioning under it, making it nicely absorptive and protective for heel-first downhill running. While this combination might sound great, it makes this shoe one of the least stable in our review, which we will discuss later under stability.

This shoe has a massive stack height under the heel, as you can see, compared to a relatively thin amount of padding under the forefoot, shown by our compressing the front in this photo. This leads to a 10mm heel-toe drop. Lots of heel protection, with more sensitivity in the toe box.

In our experience of running with the Speedcross 4 for many years, much of the protection and shock absorption in this shoe seems to come from the 6mm lugs themselves. As they wear down or rip off, the shoe becomes more low-profile and far more sensitive, while at the same time feeling much less protective. The outsole rubber on the Speedcross 4 is more durable than the 3, so one should not expect its dynamic to change so rapidly as it wears down. As it is, we awarded these shoes 7 out of 10 for protection, roughly in line with the similarly cushioned Altra Lone Peak 3.5 or the Nike Air Zoom Wildhorse 4.

Traction

In the past we found these to have without a doubt the best traction of any shoe we had ever worn, but they have been one-upped by the similarly aggressive but slightly stickier Inov-8 Rocklite 290. As such we gave them the second highest score, 9 out of 10. Salomon has addressed some of the issues with the 6mm lugs on these shoes ripping off, with rubber is obviously harder and more durable than it used to be.

Sometimes these shoes felt so sticky that it didn't feel like we could detach from the ground. On the other hand, they also give great purchase for takeoff.

The lugs themselves are now smaller, and there are only full arrow lugs on the outsole, not some that are cut in half on the edges like the older model sported. The Contagrip rubber used in this single piece outsole has also been updated for better traction in wet conditions, but this was the one area where this shoe simply didn't stick quite as well as the Roclite. Regardless, it is far more aggressive and grippy than even the very best of the rest, like the Nike Zoom Terra Kiger 4.

Stability

We think that the Speedcross 4 is the least stable shoe in this review, with many things going into this assessment. Anecdotally, the 10mm heel-toe drop makes these shoes tippy and easy to roll an ankle. The forefoot is very low, and the heel is very high, which doesn't provide a flat and stable landing platform. Adding to this dynamic is that the very tall lugs flex and move under the weight of the foot, making the platform one lands upon further off the ground, and more shifty if that makes sense. These feelings are backed up by the numbers, as the 30mm stack height in the heel is in line with the highest stack heights of the Hoka shoes. It is also quite narrow in both the forefoot and the heel, eschewing the recent push among many shoemakers to widen the forefoot for more stable landing and push off platform. Finally, while the cut of the upper around the heel and ankle is now lower, this also means that the upper grips the foot slightly less in these areas, allowing even more lateral movement. For these reasons, we could only award it a paltry 3 points out of 10; we encourage runners with ankle rolling or spraining issues to take a look at a more stable shoe, like the Nike Wildhorse 4 or the super low to the ground Altra Superior 3.5 first.

A wide platform, especially under the forefoot, helps with stability, but the Speedcross are exceedingly narrow, perhaps the narrowest shoe we have ever worn. For comparison, we here show the difference in the shape of the forefoot compared to the Nike Terra Kiger below. The far sides of the shoes that you can't see are perfectly aligned starting at the toe.

Comfort

Upon putting the Speedcross 4 on your foot, you might notice how comfortable it feels. There is padding in all of the right places, and the sure lace system secures your foot snugly within the upper without pinching or rub points. The heel fits great, and the shoes are sized just right. That said, we could only award 7 out of 10 points for comfort, due to a few other concerns. One is that this shoe is very narrow compared to most, and this affected how our foot felt on long runs. Our wide feet start to stretch and flatten out the upper, which then starts to overflow the midsole platform of the shoe. The shoe also doesn't breathe very well and leads to some seriously sweaty feet.

While it is slightly better than average at not absorbing water, and also at shedding it after a five-minute jog in our water test, one of our biggest complaints is the Ortholite insole liner. When wet, this liner seems to absorb a lot of water, and then when running downhill, it slides forward within the shoe and bunches up in the toes. We have experienced this countless times, and also had it happen the very first time we wore these shoes while pacing at the Hardrock 100. The only way to fix this is to stop, adjust the liner carefully, and put it back on. For these reasons, we couldn't call this shoe as comfortable as ones like the plush Hoka Speedgoat 2 but thought it was about the same as the similarly shaped Salomon S/Lab Ultra.

A feature we love about this shoe is the quicklace system with lace garage that you can tuck the laces and buckle into, shown here. This not only ensures you will never have to retie undone laces, but it allows you to cinch the shoe up tight without having it loosen over time.

Weight

These shoes weighed 23.3 ounces for a pair of Men's size 11 straight out of the box. This was on the heavier side for this review, and so we only awarded them 5 points. The shoes with comparable weights were The North Face Ultra Vertical.

The scale doesn't lie, these are not very light shoes compared to most of the competition.

Sensitivity

It was hard to come up with a grade for these shoes regarding sensitivity because they are simultaneously thin and sensitive in the forefoot while fat and ultra-cushioned in the heel. In the end, we chose to draw the line down the middle, and award them 7 points, the same grade that we awarded our best overall trail running shoe, the Nike Terra Kiger 4. While running uphill in these shoes, they feel sensitive and responsive, in a good way. But while running downhill, they feel sort of like tipsy clunkers, and not in a perfect sense. This two-faced issue with the shoes is one of the reasons we don't like them as much as our highest rated shoes.

With their thin stack under the forefoot, these shoes are very sensitive where it matter most, ideal for giving great push off on the uphills.

Best Applications

These shoes are designed for serious mountain running, and that is where they will excel. Any application where traction is tricky, whether it is mud, snow, grass, steep trail, or steep rock, these shoes will shine.

Watch any Salomon clip on youtube and you would swear their runners never even touch the ground. We couldn't resist doing some jumping around while wearing the Speedcross 4, a shoe that likes steep terrain and big jumps.

Value

The Speedcross 4 retail for $130. This price is on the higher end of the spectrum. In our opinion, we have a lot of shoes in this review rated higher than these, and so would probably prefer to spend our $130 on one of those pairs. However, many people are very loyal to these shoes, and for those folks, this probably presents a great value.

Conclusion

The Salomon Speedcross 4 is a trendy shoe. It is comfortable, protective, and has amazing traction. However, these good qualities come at the cost of stability, which we found to be quite poor compared to the competition. Many mountain runners will love this shoe and be quite willing to work with its faults, but for normal trail running, we recommend something a bit more stable, like the Salomon S/Lab Ultra.

The great thing about black Speedcross shoes is that they perfectly match with your ninja suit to either stay hidden when you need to, or just absorb more winter sun on cold days.